Blog
Winter Colour: Scented Plants
Personally I love plants that stir up more than more sense, winter flowering shrubs are some of the best at this, not only do they bring a much needed spark of colour to the garden but they also have amazing scents. A waft of scent as you wander up the garden path or...
Planting Combinations: Deep reds, grasses and a splash of purple
Wandering round the Chelsea Flower Show provided some great inspiration for planting combinations. For a combination of deep red flowers, the slightly crooked spikes of Lysimachia atropurpurea 'Beaujolais' mixed in with the nodding heads of Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Winky...
Garden design trends: Using greenery to help a pop of colour stand out
Looking around at the garden trends for 2017, the key colour this year is the pantone colour of Greenery, whether using it as an accent colour inside or as a backdrop in the garden. Pantone describe it as, ‘Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that...
Winter Colour: Colourful stems
Now that deciduous trees and shrubs have lost their leaves, with only the bare bones left there are many shrubs with vibrant stems that can light up a garden or provide focal points at this time of year. The dogwood (Cornus) family in particular has colourful stems...
Autumn Colour: Leaves
There are some amazing foliage colours lighting up the landscape at this time of year, as the leaves turn from green to yellows, glowing oranges and vibrant reds. These are due to both the temperature and daylight hours reducing, which in turn stops plants producing...
Design Trends: Chartreuse
Chartreuse or zingy acid green is a key trend for interiors this year and is also a colour I love in the garden. Even on the greyest day it adds a little splash of sunshine to any outside space, whether lighting up a shaded area of the garden or in an open border. It...
Visiting Ninfa
More than any other garden that I’ve visited there was a real sense of place here, a space that really tugged on the heart strings, whether this was due to being there for the first tour of the morning, watching the mist rise over the water or the joy of the roses...
Garden Design Trends: Wildflowers and Meadows
Wildflowers look to be a continuing trend, from planting a meadow, a strip at the edge of a lawn or a few seeds scattered amongst existing borders. Whether creating meadows or wildflower planting schemes from annuals, perennials, bulbs or mixing them up. Annuals I...
Indoor Flowers: Bringing the outside in for Christmas
I love the scent of Christmas trees at this time of year, in the same way that I love walking through a pine forest just after it has rained. The fresh pine scent that fills the car as you bring it home and the waft you get as you walk past the tree in the house....
Winter Colour
I love wandering around gardens in winter seeing them stripped back to their bare structure; it allows me time to look around my own garden and think have I got the bones, the core architecture of the garden right and to get inspiration from other gardens to add more...
Roses
After spending a day at David Austin Roses soaking in all the colours and inhaling the amazing scents how could anyone failed to be impressed and not want at least one in your own garden. Choosing a repeat flowering variety with scent means that there will be colour...
The Alhambra
Having researched the gardens of the Alhambra while studying Garden Design, at 10am on a warm (27 °C) and sunny June morning I finally found myself standing at the entrance to the Alhambra in anticipation of what lay beyond. Walking down the hill, through the Alhambra...